Activists from throughout the United States are converging on Washington DC during the 3rd week of April. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank are having their spring meeting and anti-corporate globalization protesters are coming to Washington as they have for the last couple of years during the spring and fall meetings. Activists protesting current American foreign policy in Colombia have scheduled their mobilization for the weekend along with anti-war and anti-racist protesters. Finally, Ariel Sharon and George Bush are scheduled to speak at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and people protesting American policy in the Middle East are planning to assemble outside the meeting.

The Ann Arbor Transportation Authority (AATA) will be announcing major service reduction and fare increase proposals in April. They are proposing to announce the fare changes on April 1st and service changes on April 19th. This would mean that public comment tiame on the fare changes would end on May 15th and public comment time on the service reductions would begin on May 13th. Hmmmm. Think they’re up to something?

Swiss-based Perrier Corp., (a subsidiary of Nestle) intends to begin operating its nearly completed 250,000-sq.-ft. water bottling facility in central Michigan sometime in the coming weeks. They would be pump­ing up to 720,000 gallons per day from the heart of the Great Lakes Basin at a profit of as much as $1.8 million dollars per day.

The state and the local township have given Perrier $9.5 million in tax abatements to set up shop. All despite broad-based citizen opposition. Selling Michigan’s water for private gain is a violation of the public trust.

The implications of the sale of water-for-profit are immense. Under in­ternational trade laws and agreements (WTO, NAFTA) water is not con­sidered a right, but rather is defined as a potential commodity.

This is a precedent-setting battle. The "export and diversion" of water which would occur should the Perrier Plan go forward would open the flood-gates for the sale of Great Lakes water by other corporations whose objective is profit, not the well-being of the public and the planet. What we want is democratic control over our basic life-sustaining resources.

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation are suing Perrier at the state level. Three Michigan Indian tribes have a suit pending in federal court. Likewise, citizens from around the state will meet April 6 to show that we do not want this plan. This will take place at the site of the bottling plant in Mecosta Co., Mich. (Visit www.savemiwater.org. for information). We must act now before it is too late.

A bill has been introduced into the state legislature by Randy Richardville(R) of Monroe that would require mental health facilities to stay at least 1,000 feet away from schools. Apparently the proposed bill was created in response to some initial neighborhood opposition to a clubhouse that opened last year within a block of a parochial school.

The bill, HB 5639, was introduced in February, and referred to the Committee on Regulatory Reform. It is all of six lines, and says a Community Mental Health program "shall not operate a facility within 1,000 feet in any direction of a school’s property line. As used in this section, ‘school’ means a ‘public or private school, kinder­garten through the twelfth grade’."